Does anybody know - Learning Disorders Message Board

mommyof5 · 02-11-2003, 05:20 AM

at what age are kids actually supposed to be able to make the "k" and "g" sound? and another ?, my daughter always replaces the "k" sound with the "t" ex:tat for cat, tootie for cookie,etc so I know she can make a "t" sound without any problem or hesitation BUT if she tries to say for ex: "can you trim my bangs?" or "we're dressing like twins" it will come out "prim" and "pwins" (these are just a few examples of her problems). Any clues?, any answers? I'm feeling desperate for her (she's the 6 year old I posted about- nobody replied). Something else that Grandma and I have started noticing is my son (3 on March 10th) has words he can pronounce better than her. He also had the same problems, multiple ear ifections, loss of hearing, tubes, etc,etc,etc... He was slightly speech delayed April of last year and even with the hearing loss was able to pick up a huge vocabulary,he's had tubes for 4 months now, no more ear infections and can already say 4-5 word sentences - sometimes 3-4 sentences in a row!. He is very understandable to familiar people (daycare and family), outsiders have some trouble with him but it usually has to do with not knowing the subject he's talking about (ex: teletubbies, bob the builder, barney- he names the characters, what he did at daycare, what his sibling might have done or a toy he's talking about etc...).

Anyway back to my daughter, does any body have ANY info or ideas (by the way she had 2 1/2 years of speech therapy already but that stopped because the hospital doesn't continue once you enter school)

mommyof5

NewMe · 02-11-2003, 08:09 AM

hi mommyof5, I have a 6 yr old son, just turned in december, sometimes i forget and say he's 5 still lol. My concern is that my child is having a major difficulty in visually recognizing his letters. HIs teacher had difficulties with his colors, I taught him in two weeks his colors. They say at this point he will not pass to first grade because he cant recognize his letters. He is a wiz in math, a very articulate artist, really, related to picasso maybe lol. I cant draw a stick figure. His vocabulary is very articulate as well. I have friends who have children who couldnt talk at 3 and even 4. I dont understand the concept between being so articulate in many many means, yet he cant remember or visualize his alphabets. My older boy, until he was 4 would reverse his t's and tr's with f's. Hope all works out for you, Im looking to enroll my lil one in Sylvan Learning, tho its rather expensive they say in one months time he will be on the level of a first grader, or money back. Good luck

thewaggz · 02-12-2003, 05:47 PM

Mother of 5....Has your daughter had her hearing checked? Talk to her school, they should offer some kind of speech therapy. The children in my family all talked like they were born in NY. We weren't sure why and they all grew out of it.
Also look for learning disabilities. If she has none of these, I would consult another DR.

Father of the 6 year old...I would have your child checked for Autism . Asperger's. Children that have this are very high functioning in many areas. It is hard to see, but many children have this and parents do not know. Ask your child’s school to check him. These kids learn in a certain way. They have to be taught differently than other children. That's why you might have more luck then a teacher. Visual teaching would be easier for them to learn.

Blaana · 02-14-2003, 01:44 PM

My son also had trouble learning the letters of the alphabet. He was diagnosed as learning disabled with a high IQ which put him in the gifted area. I tried so hard to help him and even enrolled him in classes after school for dyslexia, but that didn't help. Finally I took him to a special eye clinic where they found that he had convergence insufficiency. They did some eye therapy exercises on him for about 3 or 4 months and then he was ok. He also needed glasses.

He is 17 now and is doing very well. He had the eye therapy when he was 12.

Convergence insufficiency is when one eye is weak and does not follow along with the other eye. In my son, it was not noticable until they pointed it out to me. What happens is that the brain is working very hard to keep the eyes lined up correctly. This takes alot of brain energy. So, there is not alot of brain power left to learn. Near the end of the day, or after reading alot or doing work that requires the eyes to focus, the weak eye will start to drift a little.

You can find several sites on this subject. Apparently there are alot of children with this who are misdiagnosed as being dyslexic or learning disabled. It is important to get an early diagnosis so that it will not delay their learning.

I hope that everyone has a blessed day!

spookyfe · 02-26-2003, 01:13 PM

Hi

My daughter is now 4 and is having the smae sound problems and a few more. The k and g also the t and th sounds. She has had others as well. She is under a speach therepsit (a very good one) and is doing very well. But it takes a while for the sounds to become habit. We were told that it is a motor problem more than a speach one as she and many children like her physically cannot make the sounds it is harder for her with the k if there is an r in the word as well. She has had to be re taught how to make the sounds and we have been told no amount of reinforcemnt and repeating the sounds will help. If things don't improve in another 4 months she will be refered to a physiotherepist for more intensive exercises but luckily we don't think she will have to. Most of her speech therepy has been teaching her to break down words into syllables as she can do most of the sounds now it isolation she can then often get the right pronunciation and then she has to learn to put it back together. I think it seems difficult but to her it is a breeze.

Apparently the mechanics of some speech sounds become a problem for some children and the only way they will learn is by relearning how to position the tounge, teeth and lips.

My daughter has 2 sessions a week and the school carry on in class what she has done we also have a book that we do at home so all in she many hours luckily she wants to do it and loves it. She is also learning to be bi lingual we live in belgium so has english at home and dutch at school The problems occured before this and the sound difficulties are present in both languages. She has ahd a couple of ear infections beut we think her problem is hereditory as my husband had similar difficulties as a child but learned eventually to get it right. But I cna hear it as I know what to listne for others don't pick him up at all.

Spooky